


Return to Me

by ArcticPersephone



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: And He's Really Good At It, Cassandra is conflicted, Enemies to Friends, Eugene Is Valid, Eventual Team Awesome, Gen, Ingvarr Is a Pretty Cool Place, It Will Just Take a Little While, My Husband Is My Beta-Reader, Rapunzel Is Trying, Season 3 rewrite, Varian Just Wants to Start Over, Varian is adorable, because they are amazing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-18 15:20:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29860089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArcticPersephone/pseuds/ArcticPersephone
Summary: The princess has returned from her journey to the Dark Kingdom, but rumors have it that the quest was not as successful as everyone would have liked. Varian hears little of what is going on from his lone prison cell. Then one day, the red rocks burst through the walls, and Varian takes the opportunity to escape.Rapunzel struggles to solve the problems of the black rocks. When the red rocks suddenly become an issue, she remembers the young alchemist who used to be her friend and realizes he may be able to help. But by the time she goes to look for him, he has already fled and Rapunzel must figure out how to get him back.Meanwhile, Cassandra's just trying to find her destiny, which hopefully doesn't involve creating red rocks everywhere she goes.
Relationships: Cassandra & Rapunzel (Disney: Tangled), Cassandra & Varian (Disney: Tangled), Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider & Varian, Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel, Rapunzel & Varian (Disney)
Comments: 57
Kudos: 80





	1. I Feel Like There's Something I'm Forgetting

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Thought I'd try my hand at this. Hope you enjoy it, I had a lot of fun writing it!

A year. That is how long Varian had been in prison now. He would have had no way of knowing if it hadn’t been for the glow of the lanterns. He could barely see them as he lay on his back on his cot, arms behind his head, feet propped up on the chain that fastened the plank that served as his bed to the wall. The light cut swaths through the darkness as it entered through the tiny opening high above him, dancing on the walls of the cell before fading out as they passed on, to be replaced by a new glow that would then fade as well.

He suppressed a sigh, wondering idly if he would be here, in this exact spot, watching the lanterns a year from now, and then a year after that. The thought no longer bothered him—thoughts of his future had shrunk to this tiny room, this small life, where all of his gifts, and talents, and thoughts would be squandered away. It didn’t really matter—he no longer felt that drive to work, to do, to make someone proud. He had no one and nothing, not even someone to care if he lived or died..

A chittering sound pulled him from his bleak thoughts as he realized that wasn’t entirely true. Ruddiger squeezed himself through the bars of his tiny window before launching himself onto Varian’s abdomen hard enough to make Varian jump. In his small, thieving hands he held a bread roll with what looked like jam filling. He held it out to his boy with a pleased chirrup, and Varian couldn’t help but smile. 

“Enjoying the festivities, are you? Where did you get your hands on that?”

Ruddiger almost seemed to roll his eyes as he held the pastry out to Varian again. Varian took it tentatively—it was still warm. He hadn’t had something this fresh since before he had arrived here. He bit into it, and for a moment he could close his eyes and pretend he was home, with his dad serving rolls fresh from the oven. The thought tugged at his core. He would never have that again, he would never see his father again…

No, he wouldn’t cry, not tonight. He had his roll, he had Ruddiger, and tomorrow was visitation day. Perhaps Xavier would stop by—it had been a few months since his last visit, and he usually did try to come by once a month, just for a small friendly chat. Sometimes he would even bring a book or two, and if the guard on duty was in a friendly mood he’d be allowed to keep it until the next visit.

But perhaps Xavier was busy with assignments from the royal family. The princess had returned from her trip a few weeks ago—he had caught that much from the gossip of the guards—and the kingdom was clearly rejoicing at her return. There had been some dark whispers that not everything had gone according to plan, and that the situation with the black rocks was worse, but the guards refused to discuss it with him when he asked. 

Varian had thought, when he first heard of her return, that perhaps, just perhaps, she would come down to see him. He had even contemplated what he would say if she did. He thought about how he would apologize for the harm he had done to her and her loved ones, regrets that he had been nursing for almost a year now. 

But that had been a moot point. She hadn’t come, and he had morosely remembered that his feelings didn’t matter to her, he didn’t matter to her. It probably hadn’t even occurred to her to wonder whether he was sorry or not. If she ever thought of him at all.

He wondered how he could have ever thought he would matter to anyone.

✧✧✧

Rapunzel was trying hard to keep her happy façade in place. Her parents had been ecstatic when she had returned in time for her birthday. Not even the somber news of Cassandra’s betrayal had dampened their elation at having her back.

Thoughts of Cassandra burned and twisted insider her, it made her feel nauseous. Cassandra had looked at her with such anger, such _loathing_ , and she couldn’t understand why. From almost their first meeting, Rapunzel had admired Cassandra, adored her, thought of her as a sister. Now that it turned out they kind of were sisters, Cassandra had turned on her with a fury she hadn’t seen since her moth—Gothel.

A part of her wondered if some of the pull she felt towards Cassandra, the desire to have her like her, stemmed from an unconscious realization that Cass resembled her mother. Was she still just trying desperately to please Gothel? She tried to brush the thought aside as she stared out over the sea from the royal balcony.

Eugene, sensing her distress, stepped closer to her and placed a warm arm around her shoulders. “Don’t think about it, Sunshine. Not tonight.”

“I’m not-“ Rapunzel started to say, but quickly cut herself off. There was no point in trying to lie to Eugene, he knew her too well.

“What do you think she will do?” she said instead, looking at Eugene imploringly. “Do you think we can get her back?”

She almost couldn't bear to hear his answer.

✧✧✧

Eugene sighed. Part of him didn’t really want Cassandra back. Don’t get him wrong, he had been fond of her, felt close to her even. But after she put Rapunzel through this past month of hell, he didn’t really want her anywhere near Rapunzel ever again. Rapunzel was too sweet, too naïve, to deal with that kind of betrayal, those kind of intense emotions, it was too much for her. She had barely been out of her tower for two years, she still wasn’t really used to dealing with people.

And Cassandra was definitely an advanced-level friend, one who required a bit more finesse at handling than Rapunzel was currently capable of.

She hadn’t really done all that well with that Varian kid, either, but then he had clearly been off his rocker right from the start. There wasn’t much anyone could have done there...

Still, now that the kid had crossed his mind, he wondered what had happened to him. He turned towards Rapunzel, mouth opened to ask her if she knew anything, but upon seeing the unshed tears shimmering in her eyes, he closed it again.

No point in bringing up another loss this evening.

"If anyone can get her back, it's you."

✧✧✧

The next month was quite hectic, Rapunzel felt like she barely had time to breathe. Part of her suspected that this was done to distract her from her feelings of loss, but it definitely wasn’t working. Every time she had to deal with some new royal duty, she felt the lack of Cassandra at her side, encouraging her, telling what the proper court procedure was while simultaneously daring her to defy it.

Eugene’s father, King Edmund, had also shown up not long after her birthday celebration. Eugene had initially been quite reluctant to spend any time with him, but after a bonding journey that included the Stabbington brothers (for some reason), the two of them seemed to have made some amends. Her boyfriend no longer fled the room anytime his dad entered, so that was a start.

Then she had had to protect young Catalina, a literal child, from a werewolf hunter who had tried to kill her! They had been working to rebuild parts of Old Corona (a royal duty she had definitely tried to weasel out of, she hadn’t initially wanted to go anywhere near that place), when word of the werewolf raids reached her. She had jumped on the chance to investigate, and had banished the hunter, Creighton, the minute she realized that the hunter intended to harm one of her citizens. There had been trickery, shenanigans, and a lot of detective work, but in the end she and her friends had saved Catalina and banished the hunter from Corona once more.

Shortly after that, the attempt to rebuild Old Corona had been abandoned, as the black rocks continued to spread outward, multiplying in both size and numbers, and undoing all of their hard work. She really wanted to tell her dad “I told you so”—she had thought the efforts to rebuild that village would be a waste of time from the start.

She had argued with Eugene, who had taken Mrs. Crowley’s side when she had caught her trying to throw out all of Cassandra’s things. Fortunately, she had been able to resolve that problem by magical means—a trip back in time (or at least her mind traveled back in time) where she was able to tweak Eugene’s teenage experience to make him see things her way when she had returned, and together they had rescued all of Cassandra’s things.

Of course, she hadn’t consciously tried to alter Eugene’s personality, and the change had been very slight, really. Though she could swear he was suddenly more trusting of those around him, and he was definitely more on board with giving Cassandra another chance. He had claimed to be so before, but she had always seen the doubt in his eyes, and realized he was saying that to comfort her. Now, when he chimed in to agree with her it was with hope in his eyes, a hope that he shared with her, that one day, soon, they would have their friend back.

Still, Rapunzel knew that she couldn’t put her life on hold for Cassandra. She needed to move on. Perhaps that was best for both of them. Perhaps it had been her clinginess that had annoyed Cassandra? In any event, maybe if she could show Cass that she didn’t need her, but that she valued her, that would help to restore their friendship. So she had tried finding a new lady-in-waiting, and only succeeding in scaring away half the young women who worked in the palace. Eventually she had settled on Faith, even though Faith was quiet, timid, and boring. She would have to do.

With that matter settled, she decided to take some time to help some criminals become former criminals. She traveled to the Neserdnian markets with Angry and Catalina (the Neserdnian eastern border was quite close to Corona) to help them return the last of their stolen loot and to help clear their rap sheets. Lance had insisted on accompanying them, which was nice, since it allowed her to bond a bit with her boyfriend’s best friend. He had a really nice way with the girls, almost fatherly even, and it was a pleasant, uneventful trip.

But that was the last normal day. Cassandra’s first attack on Corona, the attack of the red rocks, came the next day.

✧✧✧

Varian had been dozing fitfully on his cot when the screaming began. He hadn’t been fully asleep, but he was still convinced it was part of a nightmare—why would anyone be screaming like that in the palace? He bolted upright when he heard another scream, closer now, and then he saw the strangest sight:

A guard, bathed in an unearthly tinge of red, running past his cell in an absolute panic.

Fully awake now, he arose cautiously from his cot and approached the bars. What in the name of the sun was happening? He glanced to the right and the left, but the guards that were usually stationed at each end of the hallway had vanished. A few curious faces of other inmates were visible pressed up against bars, but no one said anything, eyes large and fearful.

Suddenly Varian heard the sound of stone scraping on stone, and he turned to see a giant rock pressing through the outer wall of his cell, growing rapidly towards him, its unnatural red glow filling him with a fear he hadn’t felt since he lost his father. He froze, immobile with terror, unable to move as the red point grew closer, seemingly determined to skewer him between the eyes. 

Just as he blinked, expecting to feel the sharp sting of the rock, he felt a sudden pain in his ankle which caused him to jump and fall over. Ruddiger had bitten him to snap him out of his daze. Skittish, he crawled up and settled himself around Varian’s neck. Varian raised a shaky hand to stroke his friend as the rock pressed on above him, more slowly now, before grinding to a halt.

Varian’s hand shook as he reached into Ruddiger’s fur, looking for reassurance. He whimpered as he felt a cold aura from the massive red stone above him. He tried scooting away, up against the side wall of his cell, but the thing was enormous, it was impossible to get away from its baleful glow. 

The worst part was that he was starting to see hallucinations, images that he knew weren’t true, but which filled him with horror. Images of his father… He had to get away, he had to get out, now!

He looked to the base of the stone where it had penetrated the wall. The rocks were loose around it, if he was careful he could move some aside and perhaps escape through the hole. Hopefully without having to touch the red monstrosity in the process.

He stood up on shaky legs and moved slowly towards the opening, one hand still firmly clutching Ruddiger’s fur. He bent down to his knees and used his free hand to prize loose some of the broken stones, which was surprisingly easy. He glanced uneasily at the ceiling, wondering if the structural integrity would hold, how many red rocks were penetrating the palace, and how many would It take to bring the structure down?

He pushed the thought aside and continued enlarging the hole. Just a few more stones and he should be able to squeeze through….

He felt Ruddiger jolt and shift position. He was chittering in alarm, and Varian looked around, wondering what had spooked him. He stroked him softly, trying to get him to calm down.

“Please, Ruddiger, please don’t leave me. I need you.”

This seemed to settle the furry critter, who curled up tighter around his neck. Varian could still feel the slight tremble in the small, warm body, but his scared chittering had ceased, and Varian took that as a good sign. Now, to get them out of here, away from whatever these things were.

He poked his head through the expanded opening, blinking in the sudden sunlight. 

✧✧✧

Squeezing through the gap in the stones had been relatively easy, though at one point a part of him had brushed up against the red rock, and he had suddenly had a vision so strong, he almost screamed.

_He’s standing in front of the amber, watching it melt away, watching as his father’s body is slowly freed. But before he can cry out and run to him, he sees the dark, sunken sockets of his father’s face, the tightened flesh of his cheeks pulled back and revealing too many teeth, the hooked, desiccated hands, making it obvious that his father is dead, has been dead for a long time, and he should have known that, he had killed him, of course he did, what did he expect, he’s an orphan and it’s all his own fault…_

He felt a sharp pain at the junction of his neck and shoulder and was immediately pulled from his vision, back into daylight. He finished scrambling through the hole before collapsing on the ground, panting. Luckily his cell was on the ground floor. He knew there were rows and rows of deeper dungeons that didn’t have windows at all, they were too far underground, and he wondered if the prisoners down there were also being terrorized by these rocks. The thought made him shudder.

He turned and ran. He wondered how far he’ll get before he is caught, and if they’ll show him any leniency when he explains why he had to leave. 

All thoughts of turning himself in vanished when he saw the state of the city. Red rocks were everywhere, people were running every which way, and some people appeared to be frozen as red statues. He joined a crowd of people swarming towards the bridge to the mainland. No one noticed him, everyone was caught up in their own panic. 

The crowd emptied out onto the mainland, dispersing in every direction. Varian continued to run, no real thoughts in his head other than to find cover, to get away from both people and rocks. Before long he was deep in the woods, he knew this place, he’d wandered through this forest a thousand times.

He didn’t really know what to do next, his only thoughts so far had been to get away. But now it occurred to him. Old Corona—he will go check on his dad. He will rest. And then he will see what he should do, once his mind is clear.

✧✧✧

Rapunzel was feeling pretty good after having had the last few days off. She was wandering in the palace garden when she felt the earth shake, heard the telltale sound of the black rocks ripping through the soil, extending towards the sky…

But when she looked she saw the rocks were _red_.

Well, that’s new, she thought to herself.

She heard screaming and looked up to see Lance dangling off the edge of the balcony, desperately trying to pull in an old man who had fallen over the crumbling edge. She ran across the lawn, loosening her hair as she went. She snagged her hair around two lamp posts, creating a hammock underneath the falling men. Both Lance and the old man were caught in her hair before they bounced harmlessly into a hay cart.

“I call that move the slingshot,” she exclaimed proudly as she looked over towards Lance. 

Lance popped out of the hay. He yelled loudly, for the guests on the balcony, “Give it up for Princess Rapunzel!”

Rapunzel glanced up, pleased to hear the applause and to see the smiles and enthusiasm of the throng. “Aw, just doing my part.”

Eugene sprinted in, coming to a dramatic stop in front of his girlfriend. “Everyone okay?” he asked anxiously. 

‘We’re fine,” she said with a grin, before her expression grew more serious. “But we have some new additions.” They both glanced over to the red rocks that were puncturing the palace walls. Rapunzel approached carefully, reaching out her hand.

She felt a presence through the rocks. “Cassandra?” she asked tentatively.

 _How is this even possible_ , she thought with rising panic. _How is Cassandra doing this? And why?_

✧✧✧

They quickly assembled a team to assess the damage. Red rocks were jutting out of the roads and buildings, and people were pushing each other, shoving, trying to get away from them. Even Lance, who had wandered up ahead, suddenly turned and ran screaming past them, yelling something about spiders and clowns.

Eugene wanted to go after him, but instead he edged closer to Rapunzel with the intention of shielding her if need be. The guards who had accompanied them closed ranks around them.

“Your Highness,” the guard in charge spoke. “This situation is potentially dangerous. I recommend we head back toward the palace.” Without waiting for an answer, the guards began to steer the princess and her boyfriend towards the palace gates.

Neither of the couple offered any resistance to this suggestion. Rapunzel looked around with wide eyes, trying to figure out what exactly was causing this frantic, almost panicked reaction from the crowd. It had to be something other than just the color change, right? The people had become resigned to the existence and occasional appearance of the black rocks, so why would red ones cause such fear?

“These have something to do with Cassandra,” Rapunzel muttered to herself. Eugene walked briskly at her side, casually holding her by the hand. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she let out a yelp when Eugene suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, yanking her to a standstill via his grip on her palm.

“Eugene?” she asked. He was frozen in place, clutching her hand but staring past her as if he couldn’t see her. The guards had all halted and were glancing around nervously, as if looking for the source of Eugene’s distress.

“Eugene, I’m right here.” Rapunzel couldn’t bear to see the terror in those warm brown eyes. She stepped closer, placing her hands on his cheeks, trying to bring his focus back to her. He looked down, and the haze seemed to clear from his eyes. 

“Rapunzel?” he asked, tentatively. He grabbed her other hand and pulled her close to him, before letting go and enveloping her in a hug. 

“Man, I hate these rocks.”

✧✧✧

“It’s like these new rocks are making people see their worst fears.” 

After Eugene had explained the strange visions he had seen, it was the only conclusion Rapunzel could come to. She too was enveloped in a sense of fear when she approached the rocks, but it was a little different for her, at least so far. She primarily sensed Cassandra and her fear. And Cassandra’s fear seemed to revolve around— _Rapunzel_.

 _This probably has something to do with our moonstone connection_. Rapunzel was pulling Eugene along behind her as they rushed to get to the king’s council room. She needed to know what her father intended to do, though she feared finding out.

They heard raised voices as they approached the room. Upon entering, their hands slipped apart as Rapunzel walked up to sit next to her father at the head of the table, and Eugene went to sit next to the captain of the guard at the other end. The rumble of voices, which had diminished as the couple entered, resumed its fevered volume as they finished seating themselves.

It was clear that the discussion was not going anywhere. King Frederic was getting redder and redder with every lackluster plan that was offered up, before eventually exploding with a snarl, “There has to be something we can do!”

The room quieted momentarily. These red rocks appeared to be just as indestructible as the black ones, and they had yet to come up with a way to deal with them.

“Your majesty,” Nigel stated stoically after a moment, “It is the traitor Cassandra who is responsible for this assault. The best way to counter this attack is to find her and subdue her.” 

The captain of the guard looked down with a heavy sigh as shame suffused his features.

“No!” Rapunzel interjected. She looked at her dad imploringly. “This isn’t Cassandra’s fault! She’s scared, she’s not doing it on purpose!”

“Rapunzel, I don’t care if she’s doing it on purpose or not. She’s a threat to this kingdom, and she must be stopped. In any way we can!”

“I’ll find her! I’ll talk to her! Please, just let me—”

“Rapunzel, you are not going anywhere near her!” The king looked furious for a moment, before noticing his daughter’s stricken face. “Look, honey, you tried your best, I know you did. But it failed. And now the adults need to solve the problem.”

He paused for a heavy moment before continuing. “And you must be protected at all costs.”

✧✧✧

That night was the worst night of sleep Rapunzel had ever had, and it wasn’t just because the red rocks were magnifying everyone’s nightmares. 

King Frederic had sent out three additional companies of men, with orders to subdue or eliminate Cassandra as a threat, wherever they may find her. Rapunzel found out to her dismay that he had sent out a company to hunt for Cassandra almost immediately after Rapunzel’s return, without informing her of this. She had begged him to reconsider, but Frederic had stood firm, insisting that an enemy was an enemy, no matter how badly Rapunzel wanted them to be a friend. 

_At least I managed to talk him out of being babysat around the clock_ , Rapunzel thought bitterly. The agreement had been that she would be without direct supervision in the palace, but if she wanted to leave it she needed to have at least 4 guards with her at all times.

Not that the guards could prevent her from turning into a red statue, if it came to that. She burrowed her face into her pillow. She just needed to relax. One good night’s sleep, and she would find a way to deal with the problem in the morning...

_Rapunzel was walking through a maze of red rocks. Ahead of her she caught a glimpse of glowing blue hair, though sometimes it would appear to be black. She kept running through the maze, calling for Cassandra, but Cassandra would neither stop nor turn around._

_She finally lost all sight of her and started turning around in circles, finding that there were no longer any openings in the maze. Just when she thought she was trapped, a door formed in front of her. She turned the handle, opened the door, and stepped through, into the center of the maze._

_She saw the monkey Vigor (or was it Demanitus?), standing on the plinth jutting from the center of the acid lake. He held what appeared to be the Demanitus Scroll above his head, while he solemnly intoned:_

_“It’s a mon-key!”_

And Rapunzel jolted awake in her bed.

✧✧✧

“What’s the rush, Sunshine?” Eugene was looking bleary-eyed and cranky, though he was trying not to show it. He wasn’t the only one who had had a rough night—it was clear no one in the palace had slept well. But Rapunzel didn’t have time to wait around. 

“The Demanitus Scroll! What if it has the answers to dealing with the red rocks!” Rapunzel couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought about it earlier. Who knew what answers could be hidden there? Perhaps the key to solving the whole situation with the moonstone, Cassandra, everything, was hidden in its code!

“The Demanitus Scroll? But Blondie, we can’t even read that!” They had tried, certainly, on their journey home from the Dark Kingdom (there hadn’t been much else to do, floating in the balloon for two weeks), but they had not been able to glean any meaning from it. 

“I know, but I gave it to the royal court librarian when we first arrived back. Hopefully she and her team were able to decipher it!”

✧✧✧

“Yeah, no, we can’t decipher it.” The royal librarian adjusted her glasses as she leaned back in her chair. The scroll was spread out on the desk in front of her, a small patchwork of notes attached near different symbols.

“You—can’t?” Rapunzel was crestfallen. She had pinned her hopes on this. “But why? And why would Demanitus himself give us this scroll if it’s impossible to decode?”

“Demanitus himself?” The librarian arched an eyebrow. “I think you’re confused, Princess, Demanitus lived at least a thousand years ago…”

“Yes, yes, I know,” Rapunzel interrupted. She looked down at the scroll and sighed. “It’s a long story, and I’m not going to try to explain it here.” Her disappointment must have been palpable. Eugene reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder.

The librarian leaned forward over her desk and interlaced her fingers. “If it helps, I’m not saying that no one can translate this.”

“Really?” Rapunzel perked up. “Who could?”

“Well, it would take someone with a special set of language skills. Specifically,” she pointed dramatically to the symbol of the black rocks surrounding a palace, “someone with the knowledge of the ancient language of the Dark Kingdom.”

“The language of the Dark Kingdom?” Eugene asked.

“Selenese, it’s called.” The librarian’s brows contracted. “And I said the ancient language, not the modern one. Technically, the two aren’t even in the same language family, so knowledge of the one won’t help with knowledge of the other. Do you understand?”

“No,” Eugene deadpanned.

“Thought so.”

“But don’t we have any books in the library that could help translate Selenese?” Rapunzel asked, hopefully.

“Actually, Princess, we have very little information in our library on anything to do with the Dark Kingdom, or Selenia, as it was once called.” She glanced back at Eugene. “But now that we have such a close connection with them, perhaps Mr. Fitzherbert could extract some knowledge from his father’s library to ours? A little information exchange?” She sat up straighter at this, clearly excited. “The people of the Dark Kingdom have jealously guarded their secrets for centuries. But surely there is no need now, now that they no longer guard the moonstone…”

Both Eugene and Rapunzel seemed to deflate.

The librarian studied them briefly. “A sensitive subject, I take it? A sore spot? Anyway, there is one more thing you should know. A working knowledge of Selenese is just the start of what you would need to read this, because I’m pretty sure it’s also in code. If Demanitus really did write this, then he’s a bit of a twisty bastard.”

“Okay.” Rapunzel squared her shoulders, trying to reignite her spark of optimism. “Eugene, let’s find your dad. Maybe he knows this dead language.”

“I didn’t say that it was dead,” the librarian interjected. “Just that it was ancient. Supposedly, some of the scholars of the Dark Kingdom still use it as a written language as a way to hide their research from outsiders. But there are so few of them these days… Wait, you know what? It’s a dead language.”

Eugene groaned as Rapunzel grabbed the scroll. “My dad? Seriously? You know how I feel about that guy.”

“Really?” Rapunzel said, surprised. “I thought you two were doing better.” She rolled the scroll up and tucked it under her arm, before turning and heading towards the door.

“Well, yeah.” Eugene moved to follow her. “But I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Blondie, but when dealing with him you can quickly get caught up in a strange three-way conversation between you, him, and his inner monologue. It’s kind of creepy.”

“I think he’s sweet,” Rapunzel stated with a strained smile as they walked down the hallway towards the guest rooms.

“You know, he’s not going to know this dead language. He barely knows which end of his pet crow thing is up.”

“Well, maybe he has a dictionary!” she snapped. Eugene jumped at her tone, and Rapunzel took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, that was uncalled for. But maybe he has some sort of lead we could follow.”

“Are you okay, Sunshine?” 

His concern for her always made her melt a little. He always wanted to make things better for her. But this pain was something he couldn’t fix. She stopped abruptly and turned towards him.

“I’m trying, Eugene. Between what happened with Cassandra, the black rocks, the red rocks and everything else, I’ve just had a tough time this past year and a half. I just want things to be simple for a change.”

He took her hand and squeezed it. “You know, it’s not your job to fix everything. This is on your dad and his advisors.”

She pulled her hand back. “But I was supposed to fix this! We went on a whole, year-long trip to solve it! And I failed! And all because, apparently, I’m a terrible friend!” She sank down onto a bench aligning the corridor and put her face in her hands. _She was a terrible friend. Cassandra hated her, and before that…_

Eugene had just seated himself beside her, placing his arm around her waist when she jolted. She sat up straight, with what she was sure was a dazed expression on her face, before slowly turning towards Eugene.

“Sunshine?” he asked softly, as if he were being careful not to startle her.

She stared at him, unseeing. She was quiet for so long that he was starting to look concerned. She finally spoke up, struggling to keep the tremble out of her voice.

“I know who can translate this.”


	2. The Next Step

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Varian and Rapunzel both plan their next steps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the positive feed-back! I'm having a blast writing this anyway, but encouragement is glorious!

Varian awoke the next morning with the strong feeling that something was wrong. He jolted up in bed, heart hammering, before he realized that the feeling of wrongness came from the sun beating full-strength through the large window in his father’s bedroom, bathing him in light. He had forgotten what it felt like to be awakened by the sun. Ruddiger opened an eye and shot him a grumpy glare from where he lay at his boy’s feet.

Varian lay back down with a soft sigh. He hadn’t slept that well since before his father’s encasement. The soft mattress had helped, as had the warm blanket. He rolled over, pressing his nose into the down pillow, relishing in the very slight scent of his father. Memories of curling up next to him on cozy Sunday mornings when they had nowhere to go came back to him, causing a hitch in his breath as tears welled up, before he forced them back down.

_No time for that today._

He needed to figure out his next step. A small part of him still considered turning himself in, throwing himself on the mercy of the Coronan justice system. 

But he knew by now that there was very little mercy to be had there. And considering that the red rocks did not appear to be going anywhere, and that he really didn’t want to be thrown into a cell anywhere near those things, that option was off the table.

So what else could he do? Clearly he couldn’t stay here. Once the Coronan government got back on its feet, it would send out soldiers to apprehend any escaped prisoners. And though he knew he wasn’t the only one to escape (he had seen several others in the crowd as he was fleeing), he also knew very well that he would be _a priority_. And Old Corona would be the first place they would look.

No, he would have to leave Corona entirely. There was nothing left for him here, anyway, so the loss wasn’t that great, not really. 

He would never see his father again—but that was probably for the best. After stumbling into the house in a tired daze the night before, he had shambled into the basement and thrown himself at his father’s tomb, sobs wracking his body, pleading with his father to come back to him, he needed him, he couldn’t do this on his own. It wasn’t until his teeth were chattering from the chill of the basement air and Ruddiger was chittering at him in alarm and fear that he had finally dragged himself to his feet, climbed the stairs to the second story, and flung himself onto his dad’s dust-covered bed.

Living in close proximity to his father’s entombed corpse probably wasn’t the best thing for his mental health. It was better to leave, anyway. Start over somewhere, if he could.

What was it his dad had said? Ingvarr. Ingvarr was a country that placed high value on science and engineering. Maybe he could go there, apprentice with someone, find a job, make himself useful. Make a place for himself in a society that might value him, if he works hard enough, if he stops being a burden.

He sat up on the bed slowly. Well, it wasn’t much of a plan, but it was a plan. He’d better start packing, it would be best to leave as soon as he was able.

✧✧✧

“We should talk to your dad about this,” Eugene called as he followed Rapunzel’s mad dash down the corridor. She didn’t slow as she reached the stairs, taking the steps two at a time in her frantic rush towards the dungeons.

“Nope!” she called back to him. “He’ll just say no. But I know this is the right course!”

She couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of him sooner. Varian had already translated part of the Demanitus Scroll, way back before—well, back when everything was simpler, and she didn’t have to keep entertaining such dark thoughts about herself. 

Varian had only had a quarter of the scroll then, but he had translated enough to tell her that the only thing that could counteract the black rocks was the sun drop. Perhaps there was a counter to the red rocks elsewhere on the scroll? Perhaps there were instructions on how to disarm Cassandra in a way that wouldn’t hurt her, in a way that would force her to listen, in a way that would bring her back to Rapunzel...

She hoped desperately that the boy would be reasonable, cooperative. She could probably figure out a way to bribe him, to give him something he wanted in exchange for his work, she would just have to figure it out. Dark thoughts intruded about what she would have to do if he was unwilling… She did not want to do anything drastic, and hopefully she wouldn’t have to, but the situation was desperate.

But he would see that right? He would want to help. Maybe he even regretted his actions.

Rapunzel skidded to a halt as she reached the door to the captain’s office, The captain looked up in surprise as the princess burst into the room, followed closely by a heavily panting Eugene. She slammed her hands down on the desk, causing the older man to jump.

“I need to see Varian of Old Corona immediately. In which cell is he being held?”

“Varian?” The captain looked—ashamed? “Oh, Princess, I’m so sorry.” He swallowed nervously. “He’s gone.”

✧✧✧

Varian had upended his house, searching for valuables to bring on his journey. There wasn’t much, to be honest. He found a couple of jars of jam, and a piece of dried fish (it was amazing how long that stuff could last), and Ruddiger had brought him a few dried apples and small potatoes from the root cellar. Varian checked every hiding place he was familiar with, but someone had apparently ransacked the house pretty thoroughly. He did manage to find a few coins under the bed, which he stuffed in a small pouch he had tied around his waist.

He had discarded his prison clothes, old and ratty as they were. While rummaging through his wardrobe he found a few articles of clothing that had been left behind; a pair of pants that had been too long before but which now just fit him, and a belt (more a rope, really) to cinch the pants at the waist. He also took a shirt that he thought must have belonged to his mother, since it was way too small for Quirin. It was teal in color, with sleeves that were too long but easy to roll up. 

He topped it all off with a dark brown cloak that had once belonged to his father. It was way too long for him, and he didn’t have time to hem it, so he used a knife to trim off a wide section from the bottom. It didn’t look very nice, but at least it wouldn’t be dragging along the ground as he walked.

As for boots, there probably wasn’t much he could do about that. Still, it would be difficult to cover a lot of ground with bare feet (the soles he had strapped to his feet had disintegrated on his walk to Old Corona), so he spent a little bit of time searching through some nearby houses to see if he would get lucky. In the third house he did—a pair of sturdy brown boots, slightly too large but wearable with thick socks, were lying in the entryway. 

His relief at having found the very basics to protect himself from the elements was profound. Perhaps he could do this. Perhaps he really would be able to get away, to start over. To pretend none of this ever happened. 

He said good-bye to his room, to his father’s bed, and last to his father, entombed in his amber. He felt some unease at having no alchemical protection on this journey—someone had straight-up cleared out his lab, to the point where Quirin’s coffin was the only thing in the room. He had strapped a woodworking knife to his belt, but that was more a tool than a weapon. 

Still, he figured he was ready, and that he’d better not linger. 

The village was clearly totally abandoned, but he still didn’t feel comfortable out in the open. He tried to keep to the shadows as he left, ducking behind trees and bushes, as he made his way to the giant, gaping hole in the wall. 

It looked like someone had started repairs, but then new black rocks had shot up, destroying the new sections. He was glad, it made it easier to leave, he wouldn’t have to try to explain himself to some gatekeeper somewhere.

He took a step, and he was outside of the wall. His first steps outside of Corona. Looking around, it didn’t look that different. And it certainly wasn’t safe yet—Coronan soldiers often patrolled these borderlands. But still, he was free, wasn’t he?

And just as he had that thought, he heard the sound of racing hoofbeats.

✧✧✧

“What do you mean, he’s gone?” Rapunzel’s thoughts immediately turned to what could have happened. Had he gotten sick and died in this drafty prison? Had another inmate killed him?

Or had her father had him executed, in spite of promising her he would help him?

The captain looked utterly dejected. “I mean, he’s escaped. Probably yesterday, along with about a quarter of the prison population.”

“What!” Eugene and Rapunzel both exclaimed.

“It’s these blasted red rocks! They’ve torn through a bunch of the prison cells. They’re blocking our entrance to several others.” The captain ran his hand through his thinning hair. “We haven’t been able to reach the lowest level, I’m really hoping there’s no one’s still alive down there, because if they are…”

Eugene and Rapunzel shared a look of horror. Rapunzel hadn’t even heard about this situation, it hadn’t been discussed at the council meeting. “Is my father aware of the situation?”

“Of course he is! He told me to deal with it as best I can, but that’s tricky with him having sent so many of my guards out to search for—well, you know!” The captain’s voice broke, and it took him a second to regain his composure. The situation with his daughter was clearly paining him, though he was struggling not to let that show.

“Anyway,” he continued. “I’ve had a hard time finding men willing to go down there and assess the situation, and the ones that do go don’t always come back. We weren’t able to feed and water all the prisoners last night, and I’m trying to remedy that this morning before we have anyone passing out from dehydration.”

“I can help,” Rapunzel said. She felt a strong urge to do something. _Anything._

“No,” the captain said, at the exact same time as Eugene exclaimed, “Absolutely not.”

“It’s too dangerous, Princess, your father would have my head.” The captain had risen from his chair now. “The power of the red rocks seems to be stronger down there. Almost half the prisoners seem to be red statues at this point, and honestly, that’s probably for the best. At least that way they can’t die of dehydration, or escape.”

“I can help.” Rapunzel repeated firmly. “I’m actually pretty sure that I’m somewhat resistant to the red rocks’ power.”

The captain looked at her with resignation before sighing. “Fine. Follow me.”

✧✧✧

Rapunzel had been unsure what to expect. She’d been in the dungeons many times before, and they had always been a bit gloomy and drafty, but the red rocks had made everything worse. The low lighting was not helped at all by the ominous red glow glinting from the rocks, and the holes punctured in the walls at various levels left the whole prison even more drafty and chilly than usual. It didn’t help that it was still early summer, and the weather had been cool, especially overnight.

She was carrying platters of some greasy-looking concoction with wooden cups of water to the prisoners, who looked at her with such gratitude for the foul-smelling slop that it provoked some deep twinge of guilt inside her. Why did the food smell so bad? Was that really necessary?

In a few of the cells she saw the inmates pressed up against their walls, trying to put as much distance between themselves and the red rock that had intruded into their space. Whenever she saw this, she insisted that the captain move them to a rock-free cell. But for many of them it was too late, the prisoners having become red statues pressed up against the bars, seeming to hunch in on themselves in a protective ball.

She was doing this out of a sense of sympathy and compassion, but she was also trying to decide on her next step. She had been so certain that Varian would solve the problem she wasn’t sure what to do now that he was gone.

She wasn’t afraid of him, exactly, but a part of her did think that this was bad timing. Corona was in a weakened state, Cassandra was a possible threat, and the last thing they would need now would be a return of the alchemist, hellbent on revenge.

“Here.” She looked up as the captain spoke. He was pointing to a small cell, smaller than the others, with a tiny window near the ceiling, and a giant red rock protruding through the wall. The tip of the rock came so far that the very tip had pushed through the bars on the front of the cell.

“This was Varian’s cell.”

Her heart contracted once more. This was where Varian had spent the last year? She walked up to examine the interior, peering through the bars. There were several items scattered around the small cot. She needed a closer look.

“I’d like to enter the cell, please.”

The captain pulled out a ring of keys and silently unlocked the door. Rapunzel stepped inside, and immediately felt an overwhelming sense of claustrophobia. She knew what it felt like to be trapped, after all. Still, she hadn’t expected such a strong reaction, but suspected that the red rock that was currently occupying about a quarter of the space was playing a part. Perhaps she wasn’t as immune to the effects of the rocks as she had thought.

She knelt down next to the small, wooden cot and felt under the mattress. Well, mattress was too strong a word, it was more like a slightly thickened blanket. This was where he slept? Her hands brushed against something and she pulled it out. It was a small notebook, with a graphite pencil tucked inside it. 

Half-expecting to find detailed attack plans, she opened the notebook and glanced through it. It was mostly sketches, drawn with the technical precision she would have expected from the young scientist. Some were of Ruddiger, one was of a woman she assumed was his mother, and one was a drawing of Varian and Quirin, a happy look on the boy’s face as he wrapped his arms around his father. Her breath hitched as she continued flipping through the book. At the very end she saw a drawing that made her gasp. It was a picture of a lantern in the sky, and even though it was drawn in black and white, she could almost feel its glow. There was a small note at the bottom, written in a neat, formal script.

_I saw the lanterns today. That means it must be May 12th. I have now been here a year._

And below that, she read:

_I hope the princess was successful on her quest._

Rapunzel was not sure what she had expected, but it wasn’t that. She tucked the notebook into her purse, resolving to think about it later. She glanced under the cot and saw a larger book, simply titled “Theories of Thermodynamics.” Upon closer inspection, she saw Xavier’s name written on the inside cover of the tome. Curious. She would have to ask the blacksmith about that when she got the chance.

There were a few small pencil stubs and some paper bits spread around, but they were of less interest. She stood up and started walking towards the exit, when she caught sight of a glint in the far corner. She walked over and bent down to pick up the object.

Varian’s goggles. She wasn’t sure why she felt sad looking at them, but she did. She ran her fingers over one of the lenses, clearing the dust and revealing a fine array of cracks in the glass. Why would he have left these behind? A sudden realization struck her.

“He doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

“What was that?” the captain asked, brows knitted in confusion. “Princess, I’m doing my best!”

Rapunzel looked up, startled. “Huh? No, not you. Varian.”

“What do you mean?” The captain closed the cell door behind her as he spoke, following her as she began walking at a brisk trot back towards the guards’ offices.

“He didn’t plan this escape. The red rock burst through, and he fled, most likely in a red-rock induced panic, like everyone else! I can’t believe I didn’t realize that sooner! I’m just so used to thinking of him as a criminal mastermind that it didn’t immediately occur to me that this was an unplanned flight!”

“It would be difficult to factor red rocks into an escape plan, that’s true. This is more like a natural disaster.” The captain hesitated for a second before he spoke again. “But what does that mean?”

Rapunzel smiled. “It means we can catch him.”

✧✧✧

“I’m not so sure this is a good idea. If the king gets wind of this...” The captain had been stubbornly trying to talk Rapunzel out of her plan for the past half hour as she had gathered a few supplies, enlisted the aid of Eugene and Lance as well as Stan and Pete, and ordered horses for the five of them to be saddled and ready in the courtyard.

“Well, if you don’t tell him, it won’t be a problem.” Rapunzel gave him her most winning smile. “If we succeed in finding him, that will be one less escaped prisoner you have to deal with. And if we don’t, no harm done.”

“But Princess, the boy is dangerous—”

Rapunzel raised a hand to silence him. “I don’t think he is.” Her thoughts turned to the notebook in her purse. Eugene and the captain both gaped at her in disbelief as she continued. “Sure, he’s hypercompetent and dangerous when he has time to plan things out and has tools at his disposal. He has neither of those things now, and I feel very confident that the five of us can bring him in without anyone getting hurt.”

“If you’re sure.” The captain did not look sure at all.

“I am. Besides, I have the minimum requirement of four guards with me, so my father should be content.” She had effortlessly swung herself up on Max’s back as she spoke. The other four were mounted and ready, and she encouraged Max to walk towards the palace gates, signaling to the others to follow.

“Fitzherbert and Strongbow aren’t guards!” was the last shout of protest they heard from the captain before they urged their mounts into a gallop and thundered out into the city proper.

✧✧✧

They made good time. Within an hour they started to see the first buildings of Old Corona. The black rock situation had clearly worsened since they had been here last, but now there were red rocks too, making the approach even more treacherous. They had to slow the horses when the manor house came into sight.

 _Please let him be here_ , Rapunzel thought to herself as they dismounted and approached the front steps to Varian’s home. She knew that the others thought this was a wild goose chase, that there was no way a kid as clever as Varian would return to such an obvious location, but she just had a strong feeling that he would be drawn here, in spite of the risks. He hadn’t intended to escape, he had nowhere else to go, and he would want to see his home, his father again. And, in spite of the fact that he was highly intelligent, he was still a child, and children sometimes made irrational decisions.

_Like kidnapping your mom to get your attention, attention that you had promised him. You forgot about him then, and you almost forgot him now._

She wasn’t quite sure why she was feeling guilty. He was the one who had done terrible things.

Eugene insisted on entering the house first. He pushed the door open carefully in front of him before cautiously peering inside, clearly expecting some kind of trap. When nothing happened, he took a few tentative steps inside before turning around with a grin. “Well, there doesn’t seem to be anyone home. Too bad. Let’s head back, shall we?”

“Eugene, you haven’t even looked inside.” Rapunzel pushed past him, impatient now. The first thing she saw was a layer of dust over most of the surfaces. The second thing she saw was—

“Footprints! Recent ones!”

Sure enough, there were several sets of prints in the dust running here and there through the hallways and floors, crossing each other to eventually head up the stairs. The prints were of bare feet. And crisscrossing the human ones was a set of animal prints.

“Ruddiger! And Varian! They were both here!” 

“And recently, too.” Lance interjected. “Let’s move out and check all the rooms.”

“Yes, fan out,” Rapunzel agreed. “And remember, be gentle. I don’t want him hurt.”

Pete gulped at that. “But Princess, what if he tries to hurt us?”

“He won’t, Pete. Now go.”

“How do you know this?” he called after her as she ran up the stairs.

“I just do,” she called back. She wasn’t sure where that conviction had come from but finding the evidence that Varian had come home only strengthened it. Seeing his notebook, realizing that his first action upon escaping was to seek out his father’s house, had humanized him in a way she had actively tried to avoid doing for the past year. This conviction was only strengthened further when she entered what was clearly Quirin’s bedroom and saw the evidence that Varian had slept here last night (the rumpled blankets and the disturbance of the dust) instead of in his own bed.

“Varian?” she called softly. She looked around, checked the closet, peeked under the bed. “You can come out. No one is going to hurt you.”

Clearly, he wasn’t here. She walked out onto the landing and opened another door. This one was a closet with chamber pots, but no Varian. 

The next room was obviously Varian’s. It looked like it had been ransacked recently, and Rapunzel wondered idly if that had been Varian or looters. Probably Varian, since most of the items that had been dragged out of the dresser and tossed on the floor were dust-free. She realized that he had probably been packing.

_Where would he go from here?_

She rushed down the stairs to find the others. Varian had been here, and very recently (earlier that day if the disturbed bedding was any indication—he must have spent the night). But if he had already left, they needed to figure out which direction he went and overtake him. That shouldn’t be too hard since he was on foot and they had horses.

“Any sign of him?” she called out as she rushed through the house.

“No!” came Lance’s voice from the kitchen.

“No, I’m still checking though,” Stan called from the living room. “And Pete’s doing a perimeter check outside.”

Rapunzel rushed down the steps to the basement, figuring that that was where Eugene had gone. Sure enough, he was there, staring at the giant amber block with Quirin’s anguished expression preserved inside. Rapunzel looked around, noticing how different it looked from the last time she’d been here. No tables with glassware and colorful liquids, no books and notes spread out over surfaces. This place had been wiped clean of anything that could be moved, leaving behind only that which was immobile. 

“He was here,” Eugene stated softly. 

Rapunzel saw what Eugene was looking at—small handprints on the dusty surface of Quirin’s prison. As she glanced thoughtfully up at the unbreakable amber, a sudden thought occurred to her.

_The decay incantation._

That might possibly break the amber. Why hadn’t she thought of it before? Where has her head been? Had Cassandra really rattled her that badly? Or had Rapunzel simply shoved thoughts of Quirin aside along with all the thoughts of Varian that she hadn’t wanted to dwell on? 

“Eugene, I think I know how to free Quirin. But it might be risky.”

“Well, we’re already conducting a manhunt—er, childhunt—for a dangerous convicted terrorist. Why not add a little more spice to an already intense day?”

“Eugene, I’ve already told you. Varian isn’t dangerous anymore.”

“Yeah, you keep saying that, but I’m still planning to be on my guard. So, what next?”

Rapunzel felt conflicted for a brief moment, before settling on a course of action. The most important thing right now, for the safety of the kingdom, was securing Varian. Quirin would have to wait.

“Varian’s not here, but he can’t have gotten far.” She took a deep breath. “We need to go after him. Gather the others, get them mounted and ready to move out. I’ll be right there.”

She didn’t wait for Eugene to answer but pounded back up the stairs. She thought she had seen—yes, there it was. The ratty old blue shirt she had seen on the floor; she remembered it as the shirt Varian had been wearing the last time she saw him. He had obviously changed out of it, which meant he had been wearing it for a very long time. Which also meant it would have his scent, and Max could use that to track him.

She dashed back outside, relieved to see that the others were all mounted and ready to go. Walking up to Max, she held the garment out for him. 

“Max, do you think you can follow the scent on this shirt?” 

The horse whinnied in protest, as if to say, “Obviously.”

“Great!” She hoisted herself onto the stallion’s back. “Lead the way, Max!”

Max began sniffing around, and quickly began to move with purposeful strides. Rapunzel wasn’t the least bit surprised that they were headed towards the hole in the border wall. 

Lance spoke up. “He’s leaving Corona.” Pause. “Maybe we should just let him.” 

Rapunzel looked at him with frustration. She needed all of these men to be on the same page as her if they were going to succeed.

“I mean, if he’s as harmless as you say,” Lance continued. “Wouldn’t it be better for everyone if he just left?”

Rapunzel was about to give a sharp retort, when she suddenly realized what Lance’s concern actually was. He had expressed worries before, on several occasions, of the ethical ramifications of holding children in prison. She hadn’t thought much of it before, but after getting a better look at what prison life was actually like, she was starting to understand his concern.

“It’s okay, Lance,” she said in what she hoped was a comforting manner. “I’m not going to let him go back to his prison cell. We’ll find another way of accommodating him, okay?”

Lance smiled with relief, while Eugene gave him a surprised look.

They had reached the hole in the border wall. Rapunzel was reminded of the first time she stood here, looking over the path that the black rocks were making for her. She had been so excited to get out into the world back then.

But now she was scanning the horizon, trying to catch a glimpse of their quarry. 

Max put his nose to the ground. He caught the scent once more and set off at a brisk trot.

✧✧✧

“Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap.”

Varian was sitting with his back against the border wall, trying his best not to panic. He had peeked around the hole to see that the source of the sounds of hoofbeats had been none other than Maximus and four other guard horses. And on their backs, Princes Rapunzel, her unmistakable golden hair flowing behind her, two of her friends, and what he suspected were the two guards who had thrown him out into a blizzard a year and a half ago. He had quickly jerked his head back, terrified that they had seen him. 

He was having difficulty processing this. The princess had not had any interest in seeking him out or talking to him in all the time he had been incarcerated. But the minute he escapes, she’s leading a posse to recapture him? He had been expecting someone to come after him, but the princess herself? Why was she dirtying her hands with this? 

Did she really hate him that much? Was his escape a personal affront to her, and she needed to personally see to his arrest?

He needed to calm down. There was a small red rock poking through the dusty soil near him, and he realized quickly that it was amplifying his fear. _Calm down. Deep breaths._ He sighed, allowing himself a moment to clear his mind, which seemed to work.

This could be a coincidence, he told himself. They could be here on some other errand. That comforting thought was quickly discredited, however, when he finally dared to glance back through the wall’s opening and realized that they had dismounted and were entering his house.

“Oh crap oh crap oh crap!” 

He stumbled to his feet and ran, tripping once before pushing himself back up and continuing to run. Ruddiger, who had been at his side this whole time followed, keeping a steady pace near him.

Varian figured he had what, maybe half an hour? Then they’d realize he wasn’t there, and if they came to the hole in the wall (the most obvious direction he could have taken), they would see him on the horizon. He had to get over the hill ahead, then they wouldn’t see him. 

The bushes and trees were sparse, he was running through what was mostly open meadowland. He would be so easy to spot if they looked now. He wanted to cry, roll into a ball and hide, but he had to keep running. He kept seeing visions of them surrounding him, promising to do terrible things to him, dragging him back to that cell with the red rock, laughing as they did so.

He wasn’t in shape for this. He had realized yesterday while walking home that what should have been a moderately easy walk for him had been extremely difficult, due to having been confined to a tiny space for over a year. The panic attack he was struggling to overcome wasn’t helping any, either.

Finally, he seemed to be running at a slight incline down instead of up. He looked back and realized he could no longer see the border wall. That meant that someone standing at the border wall couldn’t see him. He allowed himself to stop for a moment, heaving for breath with his hands on his knees. Ruddiger was running around him in concerned circles, chittering, encouraging him to keep moving.

He could hear the sound of a river rushing ahead of him. Hopefully there would be an easy crossing. Maybe once he got past that he would feel safe. He straightened up and started running again, hoping he would make it, he could get away, he wouldn’t have to go back. He _couldn’t_ go back, he realized now. The princess and her friends hated him, that much was clear, and he was probably in for a world of hurt if they managed to get their hands on him.

Not that he could blame them. But he didn’t want to deal with that.

The roaring of the river was getting louder. So loud, that it took him a moment to realize that there was another noise intruding upon his soundscape, that of pounding hooves.

He turned to look over his shoulder while he ran, and sure enough, there they were. The princess and her friends, bearing down on him. There was no denying it—they were after _him_. He could hear them calling his name, calling for him to stop.

He kept running—there was no way he could stop. But suddenly he had to. 

He was standing on the edge of a river gorge. Down in the chasm he could see it, rapid, turbulent water made swollen and strong by the late spring melt in the mountains. 

This was not a river he could ford. Falling in would most likely lead to death.

And behind him, he heard her voice. 

He turned towards the sound, and there she was.

Rapunzel, slowly walking towards him with hands extended and placating, like he was a cornered animal.

 _I am_ , he thought. And then the panic set in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone is wondering, the captain of the guard is still around in this version, since he never had to leave looking for help during the Saporian takeover. The Saporian takeover doesn't happen because Varian was never placed in the same cell as Andrew.
> 
> That's part of how I came up with the idea for this fic--how long would it have taken Rapunzel to visit Varian in prison if he hadn't been free when she came back from her trip? You could probably come up with different answers, but in this version she's very preoccupied and thinks of it too late.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this, and hopefully I'll post the next chapter in the next few days.


	3. Old Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are negotiations on a ledge. The outcome results in consequences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whelp, here goes! CW for self-harm.

Rapunzel let out a breath of relief when she spotted the small figure ahead of them. Her hunch had been correct, there was no doubt that it was Varian. They would catch up to him in a few minutes, there was no way he could escape them. Then she could hopefully convince him to translate the Demanitus Scroll, and she could solve Corona’s red rock problem (and, if she was lucky, her Cassandra problem as well).

She felt a little badly about scaring him like this, he was clearly terrified. But once she had him in custody, she would do her best to calm him down and assure him that she would take care of him. He had nothing to worry about, no one was going to hurt him, and she would make sure he didn’t have to spend another night in that creepy cell. Maybe she could refit one of the guest rooms on the upper level for him? 

Varian stopped abruptly ahead of them, and Rapunzel realized he was standing at the edge of an impassable river gorge. Well, that made things easier. The five riders spread out in a semicircle around the boy, effectively trapping him between themselves and the edge of the gorge.

Rapunzel raised her hand to the others to indicate that she wanted them to hold their positions. Then she dismounted. Eugene’s eyes widened with a look of concern as she began to approach the fugitive, but she shot him a look that was a silent plea and he gave her a small nod, while resting his hand on the hilt of his sword.

She wished he hadn’t done that, but it was in his nature to be overly protective.

Varian’s shoulders were hunched, his trembling visible from where she was standing. He was looking down into the gorge in a manner that Rapunzel found unsettling. He couldn’t possibly be thinking—suns, she needed to approach this carefully.

“Varian?” she called. “Varian, we need to talk.”

He turned to look at her, blue eyes wide with terror. He took a step backwards, away from her, and she threw her arms up in a gesture of peace. “Please, Varian, I just want to talk.”

“Don’t come any closer.” His voice was raspy with fear as he struggled to regain control of it. “You-you didn’t chase me down like this just to talk.”

Rapunzel stopped her slow approach, and even took a step back to give him space. She noticed that he relaxed slightly when she did this. Good. Maybe they could get somewhere now.

“Okay, true,” she answered. “Varian, I need your help.”

He looked up in surprise at that. “M-my help?”

“Yes.” She tried to give him what she hoped was a comforting smile, but somehow it made him flinch. “Varian, no one is going to hurt you, okay? I just need you to step away from that ledge a little bit…”

“No!” he barked at her angrily. “I don’t trust you!” 

“You don’t trust _her?_ ” Eugene growled in fury, causing Varian to flinch again. Varian turned to look down behind him, his look of fear changing to one of determination.

“No! Varian, don’t!” Rapunzel cried. Varian’s attention snapped back to her, away from the churning maelstrom below. She breathed a small sigh of relief, while making a mental note to give Eugene a piece of her mind later. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Lance shoot Eugene a death glare, which seemed to startle him. Good. Maybe that would keep him quiet for five minutes! Stan and Pete were doing their best imitations of suits of decorative armor, keeping blissful silence.

“Varian, I have some good news for you.” He seemed to perk up at that, curiosity in his eyes. Yes, this was good. Start with some incentive. Give him a reason to want to come back with them.

“Good news?”

“Yes! I think I know how to free your father.”

“You do?” He took an involuntary step forward before seeming to catch himself. “How?”

“Well, you know that trip I took to the Dark Kingdom? I found an incantation that allows me to destroy anything. I think it will destroy the amber!”

“You found this in the Dark Kingdom?” His look of hope suddenly changed to one of suspicion. “Then why haven’t you freed him yet? You’ve been back for what, six weeks now?”

Oh, shoot. That was going to be harder to explain. Best to go with the truth. “Honestly, Varian, I didn’t think of it until today, until I saw your father in the amber while we were looking for you.”

His eyes were practically slits of blue fire at this point. “I see,” he said coldly.

“If you come back with me, we can go free him right now.” 

The talk of his father seemed to have brought Varian out of his fear-induced stupor. He stood up straight and held Rapunzel’s gaze with an unwavering one of his own. “What, exactly, is it you want from me?”

“What?” The sudden change in tone startled her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Lance, who was the rider closest to the edge of the gorge, silently dismounting from his horse.

“You said you needed my help. What is it you want with me? I mean besides dragging me to Corona and dumping me back in prison so you can return to your preferred state of forgetting that I even exist.”

“What? No! Varian, please, that’s not going to happen again. I prom—I mean it.”

“Then what do you want?”

Eugene opened his mouth, clearly about to say something, but one glance at Rapunzel and he closed it again.

Rapunzel, relieved, took a deep breath. Here goes. “Do you remember that scroll piece you had me collect—the one in the graphtic?”

It seems that whatever Varian had been expecting her to say, it wasn’t that. His eyebrows shot up, the look of cold anger once more replaced with curiosity.

“Well, you see, we collected the other three pieces of that scroll. They came together in a parchment called the Demanitus Scroll.”

“Demanitus?”

“Yes, he wrote it, isn’t that amazing?” 

“Sure, whatever.” Varian took a small step back again, a gesture that wasn’t lost on anyone there. “So you want me to translate this thing? What, couldn’t find a royal scholar capable of the job?”

Eugene was biting his lip so hard it looked like it would bleed. Varian shot him a quick fearful glance before turning his attention back to Rapunzel.

“Look, Princess, if you think this scroll is so important, I’m sure you’ll be able to find someone else to translate it. From what I understand, Neserdnia is full of linguistic scholars. Well, not full, exactly, but they exist. But I can’t.”

“Of course you can!” Rapunzel exclaimed with enthusiasm. “You already translated the first part, it should be easy for you!”

“Okay, let me rephrase that.” Varian’s defiance seemed to bleed from him, and his shoulders sagged. Suddenly he looked very tired. “I can, but I won’t.”

Outright refusal. This was what Rapunzel had been worried about. “But Varian, it may hold the key to dealing with the red rocks. How can you not want to help?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to help.” Varian glanced around the semi-circle nervously, sizing up the five tense adults surrounding him. He seemed to notice Lance’s creeping proximity and took a step to the side, furthering their distance. “Please, just give me a moment to explain, okay?”

Everyone relaxed slightly. Varian let out a deep breath and began. “Princess, your father promised to have me executed if I set one toe out of line. Did you know that?”

“I didn’t. But Varian, I would never allow that.” Rapunzel was shocked, sad, outraged all in one.

“Sure. Of course not. But I would definitely call a prison break setting a toe out of line. I don’t think he’ll care that I initially fled to escape those blasted fear rocks.”

Rapunzel opened her mouth to say something, but Varian cut her off. “Please, let me finish.”  
She nodded, and he continued. “I realize that I have no right to expect forgiveness from any of you.”

Rapunzel wanted to protest at this, but didn’t interrupt.

“Still, I’d like to say that I’m sorry, to all of you. I—overreacted—to wrongs that were done to me, and thus lost the moral high ground. I’m deeply, deeply sorry for any harm I did to you. If I could take it back, I would.”

Rapunzel felt like beaming. This was going well, she knew she would find him remorseful and ready to make amends. That much had been made clear by his notebook. 

“That being said, my father did nothing wrong.”

“What?” Rapunzel was confused now. “No one said your father did anything wrong.”

“Then why wouldn’t you free him?”

“Varian…”

“I feel like there are two possible reasons here, and neither are good. Option one, you’re lying to me in order to obtain my compliance, and you don’t really have a way to free him. And option two, my father and I matter so little to you that you actually didn’t think about the man frozen in amber for almost a year and a half, the man for whom I did everything that led to the battle of Old Corona. You couldn’t actually be bothered to think about him, even though he is one of your citizens, and you are responsible for his welfare, just as you are the welfare of all Coronans.”

“Varian, please.” Rapunzel had clasped her hands to her bosom, tears pricking her eyes. “There has been so much going on, so many of my citizens in need. This is like the blizzard all over again, you expect too much of me.”

“I see.”

“Varian, come with me. We’ll go free him right now. Okay?” She felt a surge of hope. She took a tentative step towards him, holding out her hand. He glanced down at her hand but made no move to take it.

“Princess. If you’re telling the truth, please free my father. Tell him I love him. But I will never allow myself to be at your mercy again.”

And with that, Varian took a simple step backwards off the ledge as Rapunzel screamed.

✧✧✧

Varian hadn’t really wanted to fling himself into the gorge. Actually, he had rather hoped that it wouldn’t come to that. But in the end, there had been no other viable options, so he took the only one before him.

None of the adults trying to detain him had set him at ease. The Princess and her fake smiles and reassurances, her boyfriend and his outright aggression. The blizzard guards, two idiots who did whatever they were ordered to do, no matter how inhumane. Only the large, dark-skinned man (Lance? Was that his name?) had appeared to show any actual concern for his well-being. Varian could tell he was trying to sidle closer, looking for an opportunity to tackle him away from the ledge. But Varian couldn’t allow his well-intentioned interference.

The minute he realized that the princess could have freed his father six weeks ago if she’d had the wits and wherewithal to think of him, he had known that death was his only option. It’s not as if Frederic wouldn’t have him executed anyway. And the little Pollyanna princess may have been able to postpone his execution for as long as she needed him, but as soon as her attention was elsewhere, the king would have dealt with him, in the same manner that a parent will throw out a child’s old toy when the child isn’t looking.

The fear of being in that situation, at the mercy of these vainglorious royals, had outweighed any fear he had had of instant river-induced death.

So he had allowed himself to fall. 

He had wanted to roll his eyes at her scream as he fell—as if she cared what happened to him. That was a lot of noise just for losing a useful tool. But he barely had time to blink before he crashed into the mind-numbingly ice-cold water, and then he felt his body being wrenched sideways along with the current.

✧✧✧

Cassandra was having a really bad day. Well, a bad year, really, but today was especially bad. She had hoped that a night’s sleep would help her calm down, but that thought had been thwarted when two red rocks burst through the ground and almost tripped her as she was walking to get some water to boil her breakfast.

_How was she supposed to fulfill her destiny if she couldn’t even control these blasted things, if she couldn’t control her own fear?_

The ghost girl had unhelpfully informed her that she needed to destroy Rapunzel in order to achieve her destiny. The thought had freaked her out—she didn’t want to destroy anyone, not even Rapunzel, no matter how angry she was, no matter how much she felt mistreated and overlooked by her former friend. 

And the worst part was that she could somehow feel Rapunzel’s presence, her feelings, every time she got close to the red rocks. Rapunzel was so concerned for her, so worried, trying so hard to come up with a way to depower Cassandra so that she could reclaim her as a meek, obedient, powerless friend. 

Cassandra could feel Rapunzel’s desire to trap her at her side once more, take any agency that Cassandra had away from her, keep her locked into that sun-blasted position of lady-in-waiting.

_Is destroying Rapunzel the only way for me to be free? That can’t be right._

There had to be another way.

She had gathered, from her connection with Rapunzel, that the red rocks were causing a lot of damage in Corona. That was not what she wanted, but she couldn’t seem to stop them, no matter what she had tried. And now, the morning after, they were still obviously a problem (she was tripping over them!), and she didn’t know what to do.

She had asked the ghost girl to leave her alone today—her constant harping on and on about control was not helping, actually it was the opposite, she could feel her blood pressure climbing at the very thought of the little blue apparition popping in front of her vision as she was wont to do. 

She needed a break, and today she would take it.

She’d spent the last few days in a small, one-roomed cabin that looked like it was possibly a hunter’s lodge for use in the fall. There was firewood stacked around the wall, a small pot-bellied stove in one corner, as well as a simple cot with a surprisingly clean-looking mattress. It had been wonderful staying under a roof for a change, especially since there had been rain showers these past nights, and the chilly early summer evenings were much more comfortable with a wood-burning stove. And she had decided she wasn’t in a hurry to get anywhere.

She had been traveling back to Corona when she decided to stop here, rather than get any closer. Without control, she was at a (slight) risk of being captured by Coronan patrols, and that was the absolute last thing she wanted. She thought she probably could take most of the smaller groups, but she had seen a few patrols consisting of 40 well-armed guards, and that might be on the edge of what she felt she could handle, with her powers being as inconsistent as they were.

Fortunately, most of the patrols were on the other side of the Viridian River which cut the valley in two and provided a near-impenetrable barrier in the spring and early summer. Bridges were few and far between, and the one time a patrol had spotted her on the other side, she had quietly disappeared into the woods. 

So she felt fairly safe, even this close to Corona. But she couldn’t afford any mistakes…

She decided to go hunting. It was a little early in the morning for Owl to join her, but she informed her friend that she would be heading up-river to look for game, and for him to join her when he was ready. He let out a sleepy hoot in acknowledgment and closed his eyes to sleep.

✧✧✧

By early afternoon, Cassandra had caught two hares and a grouse, and decided that would have to do. She had traveled a few hours up-river on her hunt and needed to head back if she wanted to get back to the cabin to skin and cook the hares in time for dinner.

Owl had joined her about an hour ago and had quickly dispatched a few mice for his own meal. She didn’t want to eat her food raw, though, so her meal would have to wait until they were back at their lodgings.

She had hoped this would help her relax, but It didn’t seem to be working. Every time she saw one of the red rocks peeking out of the ground, she had tried to will it into submission.

_Retreat, you blasted thing! Obey me!_

But internally shouting at the rocks didn’t seem to do anything, and one of them had actually had the audacity to grow larger while she watched, in mute defiance of her will.

She was sticking close to the woods that edged the river, for an easy escape-route if necessary. Owl was gliding lazily over the water, occasionally swooping down if something caught his interest. Cassandra decided he couldn’t possibly be looking for fish in those churning rapids. She hoped he would be careful—no fish was worth tangling with that water.

Suddenly, Owl let out a loud hoot, and went in for a landing on the riverbank. The river bent at this point and there was an area of shallow, calmer water, a perfect spot for debris and such to accumulate. Cassandra couldn’t see what had caught his interest but noticed that he immediately flew up and circled the spot several times before flying straight towards her. She held out her arm and he landed firmly with another loud hoot.

“What did you find?”

As if to answer her question he flew up once more and headed back to the riverbank. When she didn’t seem to be following him—she wasn’t actually that interested in seeing whatever carrion had caught his eye—he flew back at her, circling her and hooting insistently.

“Fine. I’ll check it out. But if it’s another dead deer, you’re on your own. I’m not carrying that back.”

She quickly realized that it was not a dead deer.

✧✧✧

Upon seeing the body, the legs still trailing in the shallow water, her automatic first-aid training (standard protocol for guard members) kicked in. She turned the small form from his back to a side-position, allowing any water to exit the airways. He was cold—so cold—which might be why it was still difficult to ascertain whether he was breathing or not. She thought she caught the faintest whiff of breath, the slightest thrum of a slow pulse. Hypothermia. She needed to get him somewhere warm.

She retracted the armor from her upper body to reveal the tunic underneath before lifting him up in a bridal carry, allowing his head to rest on her chest (she didn’t think the rock armor would help the cold situation any). She then began sprinting as fast as she could go, thanking the moonstone for the added strength and endurance it gave her. 

She reached the cabin in about 15 minutes, covering a distance which she previously walked in about an hour, but she barely felt winded. It seemed like when she needed it, she was able to draw on the power of the moonstone.

Once inside, she quickly stripped him of his wet clothes, wrapped him in a thick wool blanket that she had found hanging from the ceiling when she had first arrived, and placed him on the cot. She then brought in as much wood as she could carry and started a fire in the pot-bellied stove. As soon as that was roaring away, she took a moment to sit down and catch her breath, and to reflect on what had just happened.

_Varian._ She had recognized him immediately. And in spite of the fact that the last time she saw him he’d been literally crushing the life from her, she hadn’t hesitated to intervene on his behalf. 

Hopefully that wouldn’t come back to bite her on the ass.

If he even survived this. He was so cold he wasn’t shivering, which she knew was not a great sign. But just as her thoughts had strayed there, the first tremor passed over his still form. Then another. Then he was shivering so strongly she thought he would shiver himself right off the cot.

Good, that meant his core temperature had reached 32°C and was on its way up.

She had given him a quick check for major injuries, and right now the hypothermia looked like the most important problem to fix. So having done everything she could to resolve that situation, she decided to start working on dinner. Those hares weren’t going to cook themselves.

✧✧✧

Varian wasn’t really sure what was going on, but he had apparently asked a question, because a familiar voice had answered it. He didn’t really understand the answer, either, but he knew the voice. Suddenly he was being propped up, and a wooden bowl was placed in his hands, which he immediately almost dropped. Strange, gauntleted hands moved to stabilize the bowl.

“I’m not really good at playing nursemaid, kid, so you need to figure this out.”

He felt the bowl being guided to his mouth and he took a sip without thinking. It was warm, and so good he immediately began devouring it, trembling hands notwithstanding.

“Oh, good, you figured it out. Let me know if you want any more.” 

That voice. The broth seemed to have cleared his head a bit, and he looked for the source. Was his vision still playing tricks on him, or did the person have bright blue hair?

“Your hair is a strange color.” His tongue didn’t seem to want to move properly, and he was sure his speech sounded slurred and awkward.

“Look who’s talking,” the blue-haired woman answered. ”Do you want some more broth?”

He held the bowl out to her and nodded. She was handing the full bowl back to him when he nearly dropped it again.

“Cassandra?”

Today had just been one long conga-line of people Varian really didn’t want to see again showing up in his life.

✧✧✧

Varian was staring at her now like she’d suddenly grown fangs.

“Look, kid, I don’t know what you heard back in Corona, but I’m not some monster. I’m just trying to figure out my own life here, okay?”

“Cassandra, I…” He hunched over, clutching the bowl to his chest. “Are you.. Are you going to kill me?”

It took a moment for Cassandra to process what he had said. “WHAT? Okay, what have I done to make you think I would… What?” She was actually insulted. She could just chalk it up to impaired mental functions due to the hypothermia. Either that or Rapunzel had been telling some very fanciful tales of Cassandra’s actions. “Why would I go through the trouble to save your life just to kill you?”

“You saved me?”

“Do you see anyone else here?”

“No.” He looked up at her as he spoke, seeming to study her for a moment.

“Just drink your broth, kid. You’re still shivering.”

“That’s probably because I don’t have a shirt.” He looked down. “Oh, frack, I’m naked! Why am I naked?” He grabbed at the blanket with one hand, nearly upending the bowl of broth in his frantic scramble to pull the covers higher. Cassandra rolled her eyes as she quickly grabbed the bowl from his hand before he could spill it all over himself. 

“Oh, for the sake of Herz der Sonne’s diary, would you chill! You’re not naked, you have a blanket.” She just did not have the energy or the patience for this kind of teenage _melodrama._ “You’re supposed to be smart, aren’t you? What’s the basic treatment protocol for victims of hypothermia?”

“Oh,” he said, his face red, clutching the covers up to his chin.

“Your clothes are over there,” she pointed to where his pants and shirt were drying by the stove. “As soon as they’re dry, you can get dressed. In the meantime, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Now drink your broth before it gets cold.” She handed the bowl back to him. He took it in one hand, the other hand still clutching the blanket up to his neck.

She rolled her eyes again. She had a feeling she would be doing that a lot in the near future. It was getting warmer than she liked in the small room, but she still walked over to add another log to the stove. 

“Um, Cassandra?”

“Yes?”

“Are you—are you going to turn me in?”

“Turn you in?” What was he talking about?

“To the guards.” He gulped.

Cassandra turned to look at him. She had quickly realized that he was most likely a fugitive—something he confirmed with his question. There was no way he would have been released after just a year with the crimes he committed. But considering that she was currently wanted herself, the thought of handing him over to the patrols hadn’t even crossed her mind.

She grinned at him. “You haven’t heard what happened between me and Rapunzel, have you?” The confusion on his face answered that question. “Rapunzel and I are not seeing eye to eye at the moment. I took an object she had considered to be hers”—she touched her hand to the moonstone embedded in her chest—“and now there are Coronan patrols looking for me.”

His eyes widened.

“So you can rest easy. I’m not going to turn you in. I’d be arrested as well if I tried.” She walked over to take the empty bowl from his hand.

“Oh. Okay.” 

“You need to rest now. We’ll talk more later.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is all a set-up for several different conversations that need to happen.
> 
> I just wanted to say that I actually really love Team Awesome, but I felt like Eugene needed to be very aggressive here, since he was that way in Rapunzel's Return as well. 
> 
> This is the last of my pre-written chapters, though I've already started the next one. I'm hoping to have it out by this weekend, and am currently aiming for publishing a chapter a week. We'll see how it goes. I do have a strong plan for where I want this story to go, and what I want it to say.


	4. Fallout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some conversations are had. Eugene decides to take some action.

Everything had happened so fast. One minute they were talking, and the next Varian stepped backwards off the ledge, plummeting into the rapids below. Lance had leaped towards him the minute the child stepped back, his fingers just brushing a sleeve but failing to find purchase. Rapunzel had screamed and moved simultaneously, pulling at beaded cords to release her tresses, rushing forward in an attempt to catch him with her hair. But it was too late. She caught a glimpse of him being pulled down the river before it swallowed him up.

Ruddiger, who had been hiding in a nearby bush screeched in alarm before he took off running downstream, chasing after his boy. Rapunzel tried to call him back, but he too disappeared as he ran along the gorge’s edge. 

For a moment no one said anything. 

Rapunzel dropped to her knees, her loose golden hair flowing around her hunched body. Comprehension was failing her. _How had this happened? How had she messed up this badly?_

 _How could he have preferred_ death _to trusting her?_

Of all the people present, Pete was the first one to say something. “Princess, uh, should we—should we follow the river downstream?”

“There’s no point,” Eugene said quietly as he dismounted. “Even if he somehow survives this, our chances of finding him are close to zero.”

Lance, who had covered his face with his hands slowly let them drop as he fixed Eugene with an uncharacteristically angry glare.

“Eugene Fitzherbert, you are an absolute ass.”

“What? You’re blaming me? How was I supposed to know the kid had a death wish? I didn’t think he’d actually…”

“Then you’re not as much of a people-person as you think,” Lance snarled, “because it was perfectly obvious to the rest of us that that option was pretty high on his list!”

“Guys, please.” Rapunzel felt her optimism shatter at her feet. “Don’t argue. This is my fault.”

“Sunshine, it isn’t—”

“Just STOP!” Rapunzel pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes, causing bursts of color to flare across her vision. She had been so sure that she was doing the right thing. But nothing she did was right anymore, she kept failing, time after time. And now Varian was most likely dead, because she hadn’t thought to check on him, to inquire after his well-being, until she had a use for him.

_“I will never allow myself to be at your mercy again.”_

It was no wonder he hadn’t trusted her. If she had checked on him when she had returned, reestablished some kind of connection with him…

He would have been open to it, she was certain of that, if it had happened in a different time and place, and not when he was running scared for his life, with her in pursuit.

She let her hands drop, no longer trying to press the tears back into her eyes but allowing them to flow freely. 

Eugene was staring at her, crestfallen, but he made no move to comfort her for once. “I think we should head back,” he mumbled.

“Yes. Let’s go.” Rapunzel had never felt so defeated. But at least she knew what she had to do next. “I have a promise to keep.”

✧✧✧

Freeing Quirin from the amber had been relatively easy. Explaining what had happened to Varian—not so much. 

Of course the first thing Quirin did when he stumbled out of the melting block of amber was ask about his son. They had helped him back up the stairs and seated him in a chair. Pete had run outside to the pump to fetch him some water. And Rapunzel had shakily started telling him everything that had happened with Varian.

She had tried to soften it a bit, as she spoke, not wanting Quirin to be too upset about what Varian had done in his anger. 

She had explained how he had been turned away from the palace in the snowstorm, and that she hadn’t been able to check on him after. _But why, though? Why had they tossed him out into a dangerous storm? And why hadn’t she gone to him when the storm was over, when her parents were back?_

She explained how her father had sent guards to acquire the graphtic, and that Varian had hidden it away before managing to send her a message to retrieve it. _That was an extreme action her father took. Those masked men had scared her—had they chased Varian around too?_

She explained how Varian had finally managed to meet up with her, and that he had told her he couldn’t get to her because of a false rumor that he had attacked her. _He was a 14-year old kid on his own, with no parental guidance, and adults who were already treating him like a criminal, attacking him. Oh, god…_

Eugene watched her as she spoke, a pained expression on his face. Lance looked uneasy, and Rapunzel realized they probably hadn’t heard the whole story before. Even Stan and Pete were shifting uncomfortably where they stood, perhaps remembering their roles in the whole affair.

Rapunzel felt it was almost a relief to get to the next part, where Varian was clearly in the wrong. She explained how he had tricked her into helping him steal the sundrop flower, how he had unleashed a mutated Ruddiger on Corona, and kidnapped the queen. She remembered the fear she felt when she had heard his voice, echoing, seeming to come from all around them:

_“Something dark is coming for you. Our king has refused to acknowledge it. In the hopes of keeping his secret, he has lied to you and vilified me.”_

Varian had spoken the truth. That was what had happened. Her dad had lied to their people. He had vilified Varian, in an attempt to keep him silent.

But that didn’t justify Varian’s actions. He had been wronged, true, but that didn’t mean he was right to lash out. The minute he had attacked Corona he had firmly placed himself in the wrong.

_“I have asked for help and have been ignored. I will not be ignored any longer.”_

Quirin was clearly in shock, mouth hanging open, waiting for her to go on. “What happened?” he finally rasped out, when Rapunzel didn’t continue. “Where is my son? Is he still alive?”

Rapunzel blinked, startled out of her thoughts. She needed to get through this, for Quirin’s sake. “There was a battle, here in Old Corona. He lost.” At Quirin’s concerned expression, she quickly continued: “No one was seriously hurt. Varian—was sent to prison.”

Quirin was clutching the glass of water Pete had given him so hard she thought it would break. “What was his sentence? Can I visit him?”

“I—” Rapunzel began. Then she realized that she didn’t actually know what his sentence was. She had left Corona the week after the battle and had never heard anything about either his trial or his sentence. She hadn’t seen him since, not until today.

“He escaped yesterday. And we went after him.” She looked down at her hands as she continued telling him everything that had happened, up until the part where Varian had stepped off the edge of the gorge and disappeared.

At that part, Quirin let out a wail and stood abruptly, pushing away from the table. He shoved past Eugene and Stan, who were flanking him, and exited the room. Rapunzel jumped up to follow.

“Quirin!’

She saw him dash up the stairs, so she followed him. He was on his knees in his bedroom, pulling a trunk from a secret hiding place in the wall. When he started pulling a cloak from the trunk, along with his weapons, a sleeping roll, and other accoutrements for travel she knew what he was doing.

“Quirin, you can’t go after him! Not now, you’ve been—frozen—for almost a year and a half!” You need to get your bearings, you need to rest…”

“I have rested, for far too long.”

He was already dressed and ready as he said this. He tried to move past her as she stepped in front of him and reached into her purse.

“If you insist on going, at least let me give you something for travel expenses, it looks like looters cleared this place out…”

“I don’t want your weregild.”

“What?” Rapunzel reeled as if she had been slapped.

Quirin somehow managed to look both angry and calm at the same time. “You, and your friends, and the king, and this country, systematically drove my son to his death. I don’t want your blood money, weregild, for MY son's life. Now get out of my way, your highness. I’m going to find him and bring him home.”

✧✧✧

Eugene was at a loss. He was never a man to deal honestly with his own emotions, preferring to laugh it off and make jokes. He’d gotten better, recently, really he had. Meeting his dad had forced him to confront some pretty powerful feelings he had of abandonment and anger at his parents. And meeting Rapunzel had meant everything to him—allowing him to finally feel worthy of being loved.

Maybe that’s why he had been so aggressively protective of her, even though he knew she didn’t need it. Seeing the kid, it was pretty obvious he was no threat. But Eugene’s blood had still boiled at how Varian had spoken to Rapunzel, how he had talked as if he was the one who had been wronged by them! The fear Eugene had felt when Varian had attacked them all in Old Corona had flashed back into his mind, the fear of losing Rapunzel, something he could never bear.

But it was clear that they were the ones in control, and Varian was the one who was running scared. Eugene should have been less—confrontational. He could see that now.

Hearing the story of what exactly had happened to Varian since the snowstorm had jolted him. He hadn’t been there for the blizzard, he hadn’t heard the full story until now. If he was being honest, he’d been pretty clueless about everything that had happened leading up to the battle at Old Corona. With a pang of guilt he realized that he had strongly urged Rapunzel to ignore the whole situation, he had wanted to keep her safe and away from those rocks.

“Eugene?”

Rapunzel had ridden up next to him as they were headed back to the palace. After everything that happened, everything she had just dealt with, she was still looking at him with concern shining in her eyes.

“Are you okay?”

He sighed. “Look, Rapunzel, I know I wasn’t exactly—helpful—back there…”

“That’s putting it mildly!” Lance shouted from behind them.

“Eugene, no, it wasn’t your fault,” she started to protest, but Eugene cut her off.

“I know. But I didn’t have to be—like that. I made things worse.”

Rapunzel nodded slowly, as if thinking. “Maybe. But I’m starting to think the red rocks had a role to play. It didn’t help the situation, everyone’s fears heightened like that.”

“That’s—probably true.” Eugene could see the validity of that argument.

He still didn’t think he’d be forgiving himself anytime soon.

✧✧✧

Varian was sitting on a log propped against the south-facing wall of the cabin, the wool blanket wrapped around his shoulders, enjoying the feel of the sun on his face. Two days ago he had awoken in his cell, yesterday in his father’s bed, and today—today he had awoken, stiff and sore, but somehow still alive, in this small cabin somewhere in the borderlands between Corona and Neserdnia, with Cassandra rummaging through the cabin’s meager supply of cups and plates as she had fixed them breakfast.

He was grateful to her. He knew he would be dead without her, she had been nothing but kind to him in her own brusque Cassandra way.

But still, there was something just a little off about her. And it wasn’t just the unnatural eye and hair color.

She seemed to be arguing with herself, muttering under her breath. Every now and then she would cast a glance his way and he would think she was talking to him, but then she’d turn away and continue, whispers that sounded angry or frustrated, and he had no idea what was going on.

It was a relief when she had suggested they go outside and stretch their legs. He had stumbled a bit, but she had helped him, seating him on the log and pointing out the direction of the outhouse. Realizing that that was a place he really should visit, he had staggered off towards it.

When he got back, Cassandra had come out with a blanket and a cup of some hot liquid. She had explained that it was willow bark tea and that it would help with aches and pain.

Then she had told him she was going out for a bit and that she’d be back soon.

The small, paranoid part of his brain was screaming that she was going to fetch the guards, but the rational side of him calmly countered that if she wanted to do that there would be no reason to be shifty about it. There wouldn’t be much he could do if she decided to hand him over.

So he drank his tea and enjoyed the sunshine, while contemplating the fact that he was still alive. It was a miracle really, though he wondered if the hypothermia had actually contributed to his survival (he recalled reading a case study of a woman who had been trapped under freezing water for over half an hour and had emerged alive and with minimal brain damage, due to the reduced need for oxygen when the body is in a supercooled state).

The coldness of the river might actually have kept him alive as he was tossed around by the currents. And the fact that he didn’t have any broken bones was another stroke of luck, though he could tell from the numerous red patches on his skin that he was going to be sporting an impressive array of bruises within the next day or so.

One day at a time. Hopefully he would be allowed to continue to recover here for a day or two, and then he could start considering how to get to Ingvarr.

✧✧✧

“So, I leave you for less than a day and you go off and acquire a new companion? Honestly Cassandra, I’m hurt.”

“That’s not what happened.” Cassandra really didn’t want to explain herself to the ghost girl, but from the annoyed look on her face she could tell she was going to have to.

Cassandra had been rustling around with the stove, heating some water for tea and warming the leftover hare meat from the evening before (she had left it to cool overnight in a waterproof sack tied to a rock in the river—she had no intention of getting food poisoning). She had also pulled out some hardtack she carried with her, having realized that Varian probably wasn’t used to rich foods like meat at this point, and would be better off with the plain, hard biscuits. In the midst of her preparations, ghost girl had arrived, taken one look at the sleeping boy on the cot, and launched into indignant outrage mode.

“You don’t have time for any distractions, Cassandra. You need to get rid of him!”

“Why? What are we hurrying towards? I have nothing on my schedule for the next few days.”

The blue girl frowned. “I thought you were pursuing your destiny. I thought you wanted your freedom.”

Cassandra had had it. “How? I can’t even pursue a bucket of water without tripping over these blasted red rocks! You want me to somehow conquer Corona while I can’t even control my own….” She trailed off as she noticed Varian stirring from the corner of her eye. Well, that was one way to wake him.

He sat up slowly, looking around the room with a glazed gaze. His eyes locked onto hers and he seemed to startle, before recollection returned and he relaxed again. 

Cassandra deliberately turned her back on the ghost girl. “How are you feeling this morning, kid?”

He groaned. “Like I’ve been pummeled by the whole royal guard.”

Well, that was oddly specific. Cassandra bundled the clothes that had been drying by the stove and placed them next to the boy on the cot. “Here, these are dry now. Think you can get dressed on your own?”

“Yes, definitely, thank you,” he mumbled, turning red.

“Good. I’ll step outside and give you a few minutes, then.”

She heard the ghost girl laugh. “I see how it is. You miss your days as lady-in-waiting. You need a new little princess to dote on and get ready in the mornings, do you?”

Cassandra turned to the girl with a snarl. “What the hell is wrong with you? I’m just helping someone out, you don’t have to get all personal!”

“Um...” She turned to see Varian looking very bewildered. Great. Now he thinks she’s lost it. 

“Never mind that. I’ll be right outside if you need anything, okay?” Without waiting for an answer, she turned and headed out the door, the ghost girl trailing in her wake, sniggering.

✧✧✧

Cassandra tried to hurry through breakfast without speaking any more to the ghost girl, but Blue seemed intent on getting under her skin. As soon as they were done, she helped Varian outside, gave him some tea, and told him she’d be back soon.

She really needed to have a talk with her little blue “friend”, far away from prying ears.

As soon as they were out of earshot of the cabin, Cassandra turned on the ghost girl. “That was uncalled for,” she hissed. “It’s like you want him to think I’m unbalanced!”

“That is incorrect. I don’t really care what he thinks, as long as you get rid of him!” Her eyes flashed with anger, and Cassandra was reminded that the ghost girl could be pretty intimidating when she wanted to be.

But Cassandra refused to back down. “I’m not going to do that. Not yet. He’s in trouble. Besides,” she continued as the ghost girl opened her mouth to protest, “he’s just escaped from Corona. I might be able to gather some intel from him regarding the state of things there, intel that could help me plan my next move.”

The ghost girl raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“That’s what you want, right? You want me to figure out the next step of my plan. Well, I think I need some inside information. And once I get that, I’ll send him on his way and we’ll continue on ours. But you have to let me do this my way. No interfering, and no goading me into speaking to you. He’s scared enough as it is. If we spook him any further we won’t get anything out of him.”

Blue seemed to hesitate. Cassandra wondered briefly why the girl seemed to feel so strongly about this—what was she worried would happen if they kept Varian for a few days?

In the end, the girl rolled her eyes with a shrug. “Fine. Suit yourself. But just so you know, this will be a colossal waste of time.”

“Whatever. Just stay out of my way on this.”

✧✧✧

There was no way around it—Rapunzel felt awful. She had awoken after a restless night with a pounding headache, and a desire to never leave her room again. Everything she did was wrong anyway, it was probably better for everyone if she just stayed in bed.

She shambled over to the balcony windows to look outside—in the early morning light she could see the red glow glinting off thousands of fear rocks spreading across the island and continuing onto the mainland. They seemed to be multiplying.

That can’t be good, she thought to herself. Still, there was nothing she could do about it, and it wasn’t her responsibility.

Except that it was. If only she hadn’t lost Varian. No—if only she hadn’t lost Cassandra, then none of this would have happened in the first place.

Her people were suffering, that much was obvious. And she was useless, incapable of doing anything to prevent their suffering. She only made things worse.

Faith came to check on her at 8 o’clock sharp as usual, but Rapunzel waived her away, informing her that she wouldn’t be needing her services today. There was nowhere she needed to go, nowhere she wanted to go.

She sat down at her desk with a sigh. Looking around the surface that was strewn with sketches, pencils, and the occasional stray bead from her hair, she noticed Varian’s notebook and goggles. She sighed again as she picked up the notebook and started flipping through it once more.

She was starting to see where she had gone wrong with Varian. Explaining what had happened to Quirin, seeing Quirin’s reaction, had clarified her own actions in a way that had allowed her to see her faults for what they were. She hadn’t really received pushback from anyone else before (other than Varian himself), and she saw the thread more clearly now, the actions she could have taken to avoid the whole mess with him. Or at least, mitigate it.

She had weighed lives on a scale, and concluded that his one life did not add up to the lives of her entire populace. And while this was true on some level, it hadn’t meant that she couldn’t have done something after the fact, after her people were safe.

And she certainly shouldn’t have allowed Nigel to toss him out into the storm. She should have kept him at her side until she was able to go back with him, until the storm was over and it was safe to go.

Sometimes she wondered what she would have been like if she had never been taken by Gothel, if she’d grown up here with her parents. Would she have been more assertive and able to stand up to Nigel? Would she have had more of a clue? Would she understand people better? Because even though she had mostly figured out where she went wrong with Varian, she still had absolutely no inkling where she had gone wrong with Cassandra.

She had adored Cassandra, had wanted so badly to be her friend. And they were friends, she knew Cass had loved her too. So what had she done to make her so angry? Why did Cass hate her?

How could Rapunzel not have seen Cassandra’s suffering?

Alleviating the suffering of one person could, in some cases, alleviate the suffering of many. And even if that wasn’t the outcome, it was still an action that had inherent value.

It was too late for Varian, and she would always regret that. But perhaps it wasn’t too late for Cassandra. If only she could talk to her… Perhaps she would finally stop seeing all these visions of Cassandra destroying Corona, destroying everything she loves, and then turning away from her with such contempt in her eyes, in her posture, revealing that the last thing she would destroy would be Rapunzel’s hope for the survival of their friendship…

Rapunzel groaned as she stumbled back to her bed. She didn’t want to think anymore. So she crawled under the covers until unconsciousness and fretful dreams claimed her once more.

✧✧✧

Eugene respected Rapunzel’s need for space today. He didn’t really feel like talking much, either. No one did, it seemed—Lance had packed up Angry and Catalina, and they had headed back to the treehouse, Lance muttering something about time to himself and proper treatment of kids.

So Eugene had the day to himself. Since he couldn’t just spend the day wallowing in regrets, he needed to find something to avoid his own thoughts. And when he didn’t want to think, the solution was to do, to take action to solve the problem at hand.

That was how he found himself, scroll in hand, standing in front of the massive desk of the royal court librarian inquiring about Neserdnian linguists.

The librarian, a tall middle-aged woman with her greying hair pulled back in a bun and hazel eyes rimmed by thick glasses, looked at him like he had asked her if water makes you wet.

“Neserdnian linguists? Really?”

“Yes, they exist, right? I was hoping maybe some of them could translate this.” Eugene held the scroll up to her face as he said this, and she pushed it away.

“Oh, they exist, all right. I mean, there aren’t a lot of them, but there is a small department of linguistics at the Neserdnian Academy of Arts and Sciences.”

“That’s great!” Eugene felt a strange pang. In spite of everything, Varian had tried to be helpful when he mentioned Neserdnian linguistic scholars as potential translators. He had wanted the red rock problem solved, he just didn’t want to be involved himself, for, well, valid reasons, really. Eugene wished they had handled that whole situation differently, but...

_No, stop it, you weren’t going to dwell on that, focus back on the scary librarian lady!_

“So, should we send the scroll to them by courier, or….” Eugene asked tentatively.

“What? NO!” The librarian snatched the scroll from Eugene’s hand, clutching it to her own chest. “Are you stupid?”

“Maybe? Tell me.”

The librarian huffed in annoyance as she rolled the scroll out on her desk. “If you’re telling me the truth, then this is a several thousand-year-old document written by Demanitus himself. Do you think those sneaky linguists are going to just return this to you when they’re done with it?”

“Probably, yes? I mean, if they don’t, that’s theft….”

“You naïve child.” She tsked as if she felt sorry for him. “They’d come up with some excuse to keep it and put it in a museum somewhere, probably by saying Demanitus’ great-aunt was Neserdnian, so the scroll is clearly a lost Neserdnian treasure. Believe me, they’d find a way.”

“O-kay, then. So we don’t send them the scroll. Maybe I could bring it to them?”

She shook her head with a sigh. “This document really shouldn’t leave the library. Old scrolls are fragile. Although,” and here she ran her finger gently along the image of Demanitus, “this scroll is in remarkable condition for its age.” Her eyes narrowed as she studied Eugene. “Why is that?”

“Magic, I think? I mean, it used to be in four separate pieces that combined together seamlessly when they were placed near each other, so…”

“Magic, hmmmm” She hummed, looking down at the document with mild distaste. “Magic does tend to complicate things.” Her gaze suddenly snapped back up to Eugene. “Tell you what. I’ll get an artist to help me, and we’ll make an accurate replica of this—maybe even two, if you’d like. That way, the original can stay here, safe in the royal vault or somewhere on palace grounds. Then, you can go gallivanting off to Neserdnia all you like.” She rolled the scroll back up as she muttered, “Though I rather doubt you’ll find any Selenese speakers there, that’s a highly niche skill.”

“That’s—actually not a bad idea. Yes, you do that!” Eugene smiled at the librarian with what he hoped was more gratitude than fear. “That way we won’t have to worry about losing it, either! How long do you think it will take?” Eugene was thrilled with the direction this had taken—he would definitely feel a lot safer moving the scroll around if it was a copy.

“Give me two weeks.”

✧✧✧

After her little talk with Blue, Cassandra had gone on a quick reconnaissance mission to scout out the movements of any Coronan troops in the vicinity. Fortunately, things seemed to be mostly quiet on that front. She headed a little further north than she strictly needed to, before turning around and heading back. She had needed a little time to herself after that exhausting morning with Varian and the ghost girl.

She returned to the cabin to find Varian still sitting in the same spot she had left him, head lolling to one side and mouth partially open as he slept. It was almost—sweet. She decided to let him be and entered the cabin, determined to start thinking about what she could scrounge up for dinner. With the two of them here, she might need to make a supply run sooner rather than later. She did still have that grouse and a bit of hare cooling in the river, but she was running low on hardtack. And a little bit of fruit wouldn’t hurt anyone. 

While rummaging about she managed to knock over the tea kettle from its hook above the stove, and it crashed into it with a loud clang that seemed to reverberate throughout the cabin. She cursed loudly as she bent over to pick up the kettle.

“Cassandra?” His voice was high-pitched and thick with fear. Cassandra dropped the kettle again and bounded outside, wondering what had frightened Varian. 

“What’s the matter? Did you see something?”

“I…” He looked around, seeming groggy and confused. “I’m sorry, I thought I heard something—scary.” 

She struggled to keep the impatience from showing on her face. “Well, I don’t see anything scary.”

Varian blushed and looked down. “Sorry.”

Teenage _melodrama._ “Don’t be sorry. Actually, since you’re awake I would like you to come inside now. I think we need to have a little chat.”

“Oh. Okay.”

✧✧✧

Varian had known they would have to have this talk, and he’d been dreading it. He needed to apologize to her for hurting her—he hadn’t been able to get the image of it out of his mind since he woke up this morning.

_In a red rage, he’s manipulating the control panel that closes the fists of the giant metal automaton he’s inside. He watches as the mechanism tightens, squeezing her, causing her to gasp out in pain. It’s not his own hand so he doesn’t feel it, he can only see the effect it has. Maybe if he had felt it with his own hand it would have stopped him, it would have made him pull back…_

“Varian!” 

He was jolted out of his thoughts as she snaps her fingers in front of his face. Her look of impatience is replaced with one of—concern?

“Are you okay? Or do you need to rest some more?”

 _Why was she being so nice to him?_ “No, it’s okay, we can do this.” _Deep breath._ “I can do this.”

“Okay then. If you’re sure.”

He nodded.

“All right. How did you wind up in that river?”

Not what he was expecting, but he can roll with that. He started telling her the story from the beginning. How the red rocks broke through his cell (she looked startled and guilty at that), how he’d fled with a panicking crowd to escape to the mainland, how he’d spent the night at his father’s house. Then he told her about Rapunzel’s pursuit, how they had cornered him at the edge of the gorge, and how he had jumped in to avoid capture.

He was surprised to see her smirk, and then it blossomed into a full-blown laugh. “Wow, that was stupid, kid! Rapunzel wasn’t going to hurt you, that’s not her style.”

“Maybe not,” Varian muttered angrily, “but her father sure would’ve.” _And yours_ , he thought to himself.

“Oh, relax!” She continued to snicker as she sauntered over to take a seat in on the stool by the stove. “I can’t say that I blame you, I’d be seriously tempted to jump into the Viridian River if Rapunzel had me cornered like that, too.” 

“Hmm.” Varian had expected a number of different reactions from Cassandra but being laughed at wasn’t one of them. He folded his arms across his chest defensively and leaned back against the wall from where he was sitting on the cot.

“What I find interesting,” Cassandra continued, “is that she was pursuing you at all. You said you hadn’t seen her since…”

“Since the battle of Old Corona, yes.” He felt himself reddening again.

“What did she want?” 

“You mean, besides locking me in prison and throwing away the key?” he snapped. Cassandra shot him a sharp look, and he quickly remembered that she would have her reasons for wanting that, too.

“Sorry. I—”

“Just answer the question.”

✧✧✧

Cassandra did find Varian’s story to be very illuminating, particularly once Rapunzel entered it. With everything going on with the red rocks, why had she taken the time to track down an escaped fugitive? Granted, she had a personal connection to this particular fugitive, but indulging in a vendetta didn’t seem like a very Rapunzel thing to do. Which meant that she either believed Varian to be an active, serious threat to Corona, or…

“She wanted me to translate something for her.”

And there it was. Rapunzel needed something from him. 

The ghost girl had been floating in the corner of the room staring at her nails in a bored fashion throughout the boy’s tale. Every now and then she’d let out a dramatic sigh, just to let Cassandra know how truly tedious she found all of this to be. Cassandra ignored her.

“What did she want you to translate?”

Varian seemed to think for a moment before he responded. “She called it the Demanitus Scroll.”

Ah yes, that. She remembered that blasted thing. She particularly remembered how infuriating Calliope, the faux-keeper of the spire had been when they had tried to get the third piece.

She saw movement and glanced over to see that the ghost girl’s entire demeanor had changed. She was no longer leaning back, lazily gazing into space. She had sprung forward, eyes fixed on Varian with a kind of excitement she hadn’t seen there for quite a while.

“Oh my, it seems I was quite mistaken,” she purred. “Do ask him to go on. This tale is simply riveting.” She shot Cassandra a creepy smile. “And I do believe I know what our next step is going to be.”


End file.
